THE MAUNDER MINIMUM IS NOT AS GRAND AS IT SEEMED TO BE

Abstract

The Maunder Minimum (MM), which occurred between 1645 and 1715, is mainly known as an almost spotless period on the Sun. We analyze the nominal number of sunspot groups for each observer individually. Comparing the sunspot drawings and textual reports, we conclude that the latter underestimate the number of sunspots. We also argue that the different points of view of observers in the seventeenth century on the origin of sunspots resulted in the underestimation of sunspot groups or even gaps in observational reports. We demonstrate that Jean Picard and Giovanni Domenico Cassini of the Paris Observatory did not report any sunspots, while other observers reported on the occurrence of spots. Moreover, compared with other observers, La Hire underestimated the solar activity. The MM looks like an ordinary secular minimum with a depressed 11 yr solar cyclicity. Key words: Sun: activity – sunspots 1.